DOI: https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2019.99
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2083
Date of Award
6-2019
Degree Name
MA in History
Department/Program
History
College
College of Liberal Arts
Advisor
Thomas R. Trice
Advisor Department
History
Advisor College
College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
Charles Tyng has been heralded as an American hero after the posthumous publication of his memoir, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833, in 1999. Recent research involving British Treasury report books from the nineteenth century suggest otherwise – that Tyng actively promoted and was engaged in the illicit trade of African captives. A Boston Brahmin, Tyng applied the lessons of his time at sea with Perkins & Company, the opium trading firm, to his occupation as an agent of notorious slave trading firms in Havana. This paper uses as evidence records of the captures of several vessels that implicate Tyng directly in equipping ships for the slave trade to correct the historical record and exposing a supposed hero as a predatory capitalist ignoring ethics for financial gain.
Included in
African History Commons, American Politics Commons, International Business Commons, Latin American History Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons